Lonely Gull Poem by Rory Hudson

Lonely gull, hovering
uncertainly above the streets of the city,
what ill wind brought you here?
so far from your habitat where sea meets sand,
where you could glide freely above inviting shores,
infatuated with landscapes lost and wild -
You have no place here,
caught as you are in vortices and wind-tunnels,
your vision limited by hard straight lines,
your voice drowned in the roar of traffic,
your eyes unbelieving and lost.

I wish to sing a song with you,
in this city in which I too have no place
among the cruel geometry of intersecting shadows
and the hard topology of the streets of loveless lives.

I wish to sing with you, lonely gull,
a song of separateness,
a song of lifelines strung out too far, until broken
by realities that are too hard to learn.

I wish to sing to the beat of your wings
and to the beat of my heart,
now strong, now fluttering,
always uncertain as to the future
that you and I may find awaiting
wherever we may fly.